Woman Gives Birth to Lizard, Is Accused of Witchcraft

Medical experts say she just had a phantom pregnancy.

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By
Alyssa Bailey

Jun 13, 2014

An angry lynch mob (yes, really) is after a 31-year-old Indonesian woman who gave birth to a gecko after an 8-month pregnancy, India Today reported. The group believes she practiced witchcraft after a midwife delivered a lizard in the remote Oenunto village.

Not surprisingly, scientists aren't convinced the lizard was actually born. Although Dr. Messe Ataupa, a medical officer from nearby Kupang, told India Today that locals in the village confirmed Debi Nubatonis had shown all symptoms of being with child — including going into labor — "we believe it was just a phantom pregnancy or pseudocyesis where there was never a child."

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Discharge may have landed on a lizard during the faux birthing, Ataupa explained, leading the midwife to believe that it was the baby. This biologically "is clearly nonsense," he said. "There has never been a proven case of a living organism from one species giving birth to a different species; it just doesn't happen." Yeah? Tell that to the angry mob.